Why don't many use bongs?

[jcw122]

I just did some reading on bongs and making them, from the WCing Sticky on it. Anyway, I do realize some of the major downsides of bong WCing, but I'd like to ask everyone else's opinion first.

Why Don't many people use bongs to watercooler? What are their major downsides/risks?

THX!


P.S. is there as big of a risk of leakage as w/ radiator WCing? (weird, but thought I'd ask)

EDIT: I have an idea, see post 15 for it, but basicly it involves hooking up a dehumidifier to the bong TO SOLVE THE REFILLING AND HUMIDITY ISSUE!

[Acurax]

Mobility. I'd be all over it if I didnt have to move my system alot.

[SewerBeing]

bongs need constant care since the water evaporates in them you need to refill it. Also you are going below ambient so if your house is particularly humid there is a chance you will see condensation forming (low and probably will not happen but the risk is there). Also its outside the case so no lan parties and its ugly.

[jcw122]

Alright guys,thx a bunch.

[dicecca112]

plus most of us, well me at least are too lazy to build one.

[MailOrderSausag]

that, ,and if i listened to water drip while playing css all day, i'd miss every other round while peeing.

[Silver]

One of the best non-phase per se that I ever used. Ran one for a couple of years till the wife pulled the plug on it. Very good cooling solution as far as water goes. Was killer for benching on the cheap.

[Constantinos]

I have a bong and the only downside i see to it is the constant need to refill and keeping little cruddies out since its an open loop. You need to filter the intake as well as use some nontoxic (to humans) form of biocide. The water drip noise isnt as bad as some people say. I just put some ping pong balls in my bong so now instead of the dropping water hitting the flat surface of the water at the bottom making splashes it hits the ping pong balls and dosnt make a loud splash.

[ShadowClock59]

hmmm...Sounds interesting but why are bongs GOOD in the first place, never used one (I SWEAR). Is it because the het can escape in a bong?

[Electron Chaser]

EC's Top five reasons people don't use bongs.

5. They don't like feeling like they live in a Brazilian rain forest.

4. The constant hassle of having to look at the walls of the room to see if they have stopped sweating so you know when it is time for a refill.

3. They are tired of bugs, algae, mold and other nasties using it as a water park.

2. It is a long walk to the well.

1. They are tired of hearing the phrase " Keeping your computer cool my a**! Don't lie to me, I know what those things are used for."

[Electron Chaser]

hmmm...Sounds interesting but why are bongs GOOD in the first place, never used one (I SWEAR). Is it because the het can escape in a bong?

Umm no not really but you are kind of close. It uses evaporation to cool the water below ambient temps. Which is something you cannot do with a closed loop system.

For more info on this type of cooling do a seach for swamp cooling or evaporative cooling.

[speed bump]

Alright I didn't know bongs got all that cool time to build one. After I have something to test it with and finish it i'll let you know how hard it is.

[ShadowClock59]

Sounds like a good Idea if you use plenty of neoprene, but im bongless and have never made one. What type of bongs are Ideal, im willing to try it out if the temp results are worthy.

Sorry, geuss I should do the research on the type of bongs instead of asking here. But maybe someone will be nice and share the knowledge :santa:

--edit--

Anyone got a link to some *bonged* rigs with pics?

[Silver]

Use a five gallon bucket as the res. It will save you from constant filling. I used to fill mine every couple of days with a garden watering bucket. Put the lid on and cut a tight hole for the pvc to pass through to the bottom of the bong. Drill a bunch of holes in the bottom of the pvc from about two inches up to the bottom. Gives good stability up to 6 foot (though I would make it a tad shorter). Put a sight glass on the side of it using opposing 90s and vinyl tube to connect them. Always know where the water level is.

Drop a line to Diggr and link the thread. I believe he ran them real regular as well and may still be running one. Loved mine but love wife/life more.

[jcw122]

IDEA!!!!!!

OK, so a bong is pretty much a humidifier, so what if I somehow rigged the bong up w/ a DEHUMIDIFIER, I could even use the dehumidifier's res. to REFILL THE BONG AUTOMATICLY

Hmm, only down side might be noise from the dehumidifier though, and as always the stupid bacteria stuff


Anyway, I seriously doubt I'll ever do this, but I love getting into this kinda stuff.

[Bad ConNecTioN]

Its easier to just tap into a water line and use a toilet valve to automatically refill the system when it is low. The idea came from a member on this forum who did the very same thing.

[jcw122]

Its easier to just tap into a water line and use a toilet valve to automatically refill the system when it is low. The idea came from a member on this forum who did the very same thing.

Yeah I saw that, but I cannot tap into a water line because this isn't my house :rolleyes: :) . And even so, it wouldn't solve the problem of water vapor being released into the room.

[CJ-5]

If you live where they sell evaporative coolers at Lowes or Home Depot then they have parts to rebuild them. They use a float valve similar to the toilet valve you are refering to and can be purchased quite cheaply.

If they don't sell the coolers at Home Depot then that means that they don't work well in your area (too high humidity to be reliable for cooling your home). I'm really supprised that Silver got his bong cooler to work in Georgia.

Evaporative coolers don't work well when the ambient humidity is above 35% and hardly work at all above 50%. If I move back to a dry climate, I will have to try making one for cooling a computer. Sound like a fun project.

[Silver]

Ac's are a natural dehumidifier. Normally had 3 to 10c below ambient with a best of 13c.

[Sephis]

I don't use a bong cooler because the humidity can reach over 90% where I live and they just dont work well in that high humidity.

[DickH]

cant you just take apart a dehumidifier and rig it up to cool your system? I was cleaning out mine and I swear the insides resembled something like a vapochill.

[DickH]

We have a "city clean up" program in a month, I wanted to snaga dehumidifier and rig it up in a corner table to keep my drinks cool

[CJ-5]

I have two central air units running and the humidity is still at 57%. This seems like a great project for me to try in the winter. I can always use a little extra indoor humidity in the wintertime around here.

[Hey_Its_Cole]

I don't use a bong cooler because the humidity can reach over 90% where I live and they just dont work well in that high humidity.

My understanding is that humidity in houses in areas such as mine (Houston) is well below what it is outside do to air conditioning. I have been really tempted to make one for a while but am not sure it is worth it.

[Polonator]

I've used a "bong" of some sort for the past year, and I am ready to move on to a radiator. It's a pain to fill up since the water has to be filtered (the water here is hard). Also, the size of my current cooler is ... big. It's almost three feet tall and has a wooden top; a small coffee table in disguise. University is starting up again, and I have no idea how I am going to fit it into the bloody car.

The biggest advantage is that the setup is silent. No splashing, no dripping, no fan. I do have a fan in the setup, but it's hardly ever on now. However, this means no sub-ambient temps for me. Bongs also make great conversation pieces, although it usually ends with a recommendation to me; something about getting out more.

I never encountered any gross biological growth, but I do use a humidifier anti bacterial additive now. I am a little more concerned now since I am using a "chux" tower (search for 'Volenti' over at Overclockers Australia). The synthetic towels may be better breeding grounds for bacteria.

[-aDaM^]

that, ,and if i listened to water drip while playing css all day, i'd miss every other round while peeing.


haha w3rd , i play locked box all day long

[jcw122]

That dehumidifier idea of mine post 15 might work to also remove humidity from the computer's room....dunno

[fuzzba11]

My issues were portability and the constant need to refill and monitor. Plus all the open loop hassles...my worst experience with my bong was when I used Water Wetter. The stuff stinks and it gave my room a oily, rubbery smell.

I'm presently going from air->radiator

[Silver]

Yeah, I would not try any wild concoctions in a bong. Remember you are breathing the air. Try to keep it on the same plane as an evap cooler used in the southwest to cool homes. Water wetter in your lungs/body. Wonder what the long term effects of such an exposure might be. Bad thing to do.

[Diggrr]

I used a bong for quite some time. I used it to humidify the house during winter, and switched to an HC in the basement for summer.
I had some very hard water at my place (until I got a softener), so I would boil a stock pot full of water and let it cool. The calcium settles in the bottom allowing me to pour off the much softer water into a couple of 2.5 gallon jugs that I recycled to fill my system from. This way I'd only have to clean it out in the spring when I was switching systems.
In each jug, I'd drop 2-3 drops of bleach to combat algae, plus I had a pantyhose air filter on the wye pipe filler inlet to stop dust from being sucked into it.

The boiling got be a hassle, so I stopped using it. But I've always wanted to build another one 'cause it gets so darned dry here in the winter. Auto filling from the softener.
To do it again, I'd use a 6" pipe and only 4 feet tall. I plug the center holes on my showerhead so that the water trickles down the inside surface, so the waterfall sound isn't much of an issue, this would make more evap surface area as well as allowing room for the toilet valve inside.
I thought of using some 90 degree street elbows for air inlets instead of a wye pipe, my fan is usually on the top anyway.
Pig pong balls was pondered for a while, but they're often $1 apiece so the price to fill my 6" bong would be higher than my truck radiator cost.

There was one gent here that had a bong in Hawaii working well. His house of course was air conditioned, so he made a filler panel for his patio door to close against, with a hole that his bong conected to with a 90 degree pipe on the top, venting the humidity outside.
His pics showed his house looked like it was in a rain forest, yet it still worked fine. Since the AC dropped inside humidity, evaporation still worked, yet the humidity didn't get back into the house air. No house is so airtight that this would cause an appreciable loss in cooling in the house, the fan can/should run slowly.

[Polonator]

Pig pong balls was pondered for a while, but they're often $1 apiece so the price to fill my 6" bong would be higher than my truck radiator cost.

Sprawl-mart was a good source for ping pong bong filling action. I found buckets of 36 for ~$7 Cdn.

[FireMogle]

I am planning on replacing my bong with a heatercore soon for a few reasons.
1) Humidity + heat is uncomfortable.
2) I have to take too much care of it.
3) Mobility.

I used a large res with pvc pipe filled with blue filter balls for fish tanks. It works ok but during my recent move it sprang a hole or two and now drips water out. I am just going to use a rad for ease.

[Pro*Banshee]

I use one regularly, in fact, I wrote the sticky :P

If you have an air conditioner, it dehumidifies the air in the room you're in (at least my window unit does), and allows the bong to work better.

Also, with the condensation, how can anything condense on your block if there is no water vapor in the enviroment to condense on it? To dip below ambient, you'd have to have really low humidity (~20%), at which point there wouldn't be enough water in the air to condense onto your block anyways.

On using a dehumidifier to capture the water and put it back in the bong, you might as well as just turn the dehumidifier into a chiller anyways.

Refilling is also a big pain. a very expensive one if you forget it.
I heard a gurgling slurping noise while I was playing a DVD, couldnt figure out what it was and then switched out of fullscreen, and saw my CPU temperature was 75c. I went "WTF" and hurried up and shut down, and started looking to see what happened, then I found a huge bubble of AIR right over top of the turbulence generators in my waterblock. The bong had evaporated enough water so that the pump was sucking air and not getting enough flow to cool.
It's for this reason that I dont leave the bong running when the computer is on and I'm not there, it's simply too risky (even for someone like me who didnt leak test and didnt use hose clamps :P)

[Soja]

Holy thread rivival:

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=282327
http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=7033
http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=4469

Reasons I took mine down:
-On certain days I had to refill everyday, a bigger reservoir might have helped but I needed something small enough to move around occasionally.
-Hard water here too, I didn't filter it and buildup would have definitely become a problem. Also, buying water would have been too costly.

I had a 6ft bong/tower style evap cooler a few years ago as well. Refilling wasn't as much as a problem (~4-5 days inbetween refills), but the sound made me go to the bathroom every other hour and I also had the same buildup problem. Neither setups had growth problems. Humidifier bacteriostat kept my chux tower bug free. I had an idea of tapping the waterline and adding a filter and quick disconnects to the chux tower but it never happened. In the end, a maintenance free radiator setup prevailed.

[Pro*Banshee]

I dont see how it was revived? it was only started yesterday!

[Silver]

Evaps go a long ways back (in computer terms). Built my first one about three or four years ago. Think that is what he was referencing. Still a really good, inexpensive cooling solution and can really handle a pretty large heat load. I had mine cooling dual 156w tecs and the vid at one point.